The Recovery
by Kingg6
Summary: Three years after the war, Team Avatar is on vacation. Aang and Katara are together, and everyone is happy. Minus a certain scarred Firelord... He wants a sibling he can talk to, and have non-lethal fights with. Aang is more than happy to help rehabilitate her, but what happens when Aang develops feelings for the Princess? Is he really doing this for Zuko? What if Katara finds out?
1. Chapter 1

**AN: This is my first Fanfiction so please take that into consideration when reviewing. I'm all for constructive criticism but don't just flat out tell me that certains parts suck, explain why please. The start of this story will be canon ships up until Azula appears, if you're not very patient I ask you please keep reading until then. I got help from sablefalls for this story, he's an amazing writer and this story would be nothing without his help. One last thing, for now the story is rated M because of language and I have no plans to write any lemons/limes.**

Aang wouldn't mind being frozen like this for another hundred years. The world depended on him for almost everything, it made him wonder how civilization stayed intact without him. He probably couldn't even recall his last enjoyable vacation. Was it about a year ago? The airbender shook his head realizing he was letting his mind drift off again. With the flick of his wrist, he bended the rock he was sitting on into the shape of a sofa with room for two, he truly was mastering the elements. He took one last glance at the moon and leaned against the smooth stone with his eyes closed. He could hear the water tribe siblings laughing playfully as they played around in the water.

"Hey!" Sokka squealed after resurfacing. "You said no waterbending!"

"Sorry," She responded with a smirk and slight shrug of her shoulders. "the moon is taunting me."

"Like always." The warrior grumbled.

Aang watched the two siblings splash water at each other, keeping his ears open for that beautiful laugh that always made his heart skip a beat. He let his mind wander until he heard faint footsteps approaching from behind.

He glanced over his shoulder and sat up, straightening himself when he recognized the figure. "Hey Zuko." Aang cheerfully greeted. He watched Zuko with a frown as the firebender dragged his feet over and took a seat without saying a word or even acknowledging the airbender. Aang followed the Firelord's solemn eyes to the two watertribe siblings.

"Something wrong?" He asked the Firelord.

"No." Zuko responded without even sparing a glance at the Avatar.

"Right... You can talk to me you know, about anything. I won't judge, you're my best friend." Aang reminded the Firelord. He is unwilling to give up when he feels he can help, a trait he no doubt acquired from spending so much time with his favorite waterbender.

Zuko let out another sigh and turned to face Aang.

"I suppose you've never really had a sibling have you?" The airbender shook his head.

"It's so hard you know, at first I was fine with it, but watching those two... It's asking a lot, but I wish she could just... change.

Aang could only guess as to who Zuko was speaking of. Surely he wasn't having problems with Mai again, was he?

"Is something wrong with her?" Zuko looked up from the ground and shot a confused look at his friend.

"Of course there is! Haven't you met her?" Zuko asked, confusion lacing his voice. Aang knew Mai didn't show much emotion, but he always though Zuko accepted that part of her.

"Umm... yeah?" Aang replied uncertainly. Zuko closed his eyes and shook his head at the clueless airbender.

"Well anyways, I don't know what to do with her. I want to help her but I can't, she hates me." The firelord said while closing his eyes and letting out another sigh.

Aang knew this was Sokka's thing, but he felt he had been in a relationship with Katara long enough to give advice to his best friend.

"I have an idea." Aang spoke up, he didn't really have an idea, he was just going to make up stuff that sounded reasonable while using a wise tone similar to Iroh's.

"First, try to get her in a good mood." Zuko raised an eyebrow at the airbender before nodding to continue.

"Then apologize to her." Aang saw Zuko opening his mouth to protest but he quickly brought a hand up, silencing the Firelord.

Aang paused for a moment, waiting to see if Zuko would interrupt him again, after a few moments he continued. "If that doesn't work, Sokka said to always try makeup sex if-" Aang never had a chance to finish his sentence as he had to duck a fireball which narrowly missed his tattooed forehead.

"What was that for?!" He asked the Firelord raising his voice, he stood back up without letting his guard down in case Zuko really had gone crazy.

"What was that for?!" Smoke shot out of Zuko's nose as he screamed, that couldn't be a good sign. "That was for suggesting I..." He struggled to find a more suitable word. "_Do _my sister you idiot!" Zuko screamed at Aang.

Aang stood there with a shocked and even more confused expression. When did he suggest that? When did Azula come into the conversation? Who was Zuko even talking about? After several moments he finally let out the breath he was holding as everything clicked together.

"Ohhh, you were talking about Azula." Aang cheeks turned red as he chuckled nervously. "You see, I thought you were talking about Mai." Aang explained. "I guess it makes a lot more sense now. Hehe." Zuko smacked his forehead leaving a palm mark. The airbender was relieved Zuko forgave him so easily, it's not very often he gets away from the Firelord without harm, a trait that no doubt must run in the family.

"No Aang, my wife who I just married doesn't hate me. I'm also not going to apologize to my crazy sister, and definitely not have sex with her." The firelord spoke slowly as if speaking to a child.

"Well thats good." Aang replied, happy to change the topic. "Now what did you say about being hard because Azula was changing?" Aang almost choked as soon as he heard the words come out of his mouth, he looked at the firelord who was pinching the bridges of his nose and taking deep breaths.

"I said it's hard." He began, pausing to take another calming breath. "At first I was fine with it but now I wish **Azula** could just change. I'm going to forget that last comment so I don't do something I'll regret."

Aang really didn't want to find out what Zuko had planned so he carefully thought out his words before speaking again.

"What do you mean by that?" He asked questioningly.

"I mean I never had a chance to have a sister, I had a girl who shared my parents, but I never had a sister... if that makes sense."

The airbender bit the bottom of his lip as he considered Zuko's words. "I think I understand, you wished that you could have had a normal relationship with your sister?"

"Yeah, exactly. You know, having each other's backs, having small non-lethal arguments. But that'll never happen, especially now that I locked her up in an asylum and branded her an insane criminal."

Aang considered Zuko's words carefully, replaying them over and over in his mind. "So you've given up on her already?"

"What am I supposed to do? The public won't like the idea of the Firelord letting out his crazy sister that killed the Avatar."

"Have you tried?" The airbender responded stubbornly.

Zuko resisted the urge to slap Aang, or maybe stab him with the point of his crown. "No, and it would be insane if I did."

"Helping your only sibling is insane?"

"That's how every other nation will see it." He responded, letting out a sigh before burying his face in his hands.

"You're going to let them stop you from helping your own family? Your political reputation is more important to you?"

"Why are you so determined to get me to rehabilitate Azula?" The firelord asked, looking into The Avatar's eyes, searching for any ulterior motive.

"I'm not trying to get you to help her, I'm trying to get you to help yourself, I don't want you becoming your father." Aang could tell these words hit hard but they were necessary to get his point across.

"But-"

"The monks taught me that all life is sacred and should be treated as such, your sister deserves a second chance, Zuko.

"But I can't just break her out and then leave her to herself!" Zuko raised his voice. "I also can't just find some babysitter in town to watch over her!"

"I'll watch over her." The airbender responded immediately, he had a determined, serious look in his eye. "I can handle your sister, you just make sure that you do what's best for your nation, and I'll do the same for your sister."

"You have duties to the world, remember? You have to keep balance between the four nations, how could you possibly have time to help my sister and I?

"Helping the firelord is technically helping the firenation, which consequently is doing my duty." He finished with a playful grin while Zuko rolled his eyes at the Avatar, Aang's expression turned serious again as he looked the Firelord in the eye.

"Please Zuko. Firelord or not, everyone has a duty to your family." The airbender wisely spoke. "Your father made the same mistake and look how his kids turned out..." Aang's eyes widened as he put his palm over his mouth. He looked to see the Firelord glaring daggers at him.

"Uhh didn't mean it like that..." Aang apologized while rubbing the back of his neck." The Firelord decided to shrug his previous statement off, he was too busy moping to scream at his friend. "So... what do you think?" Aang beamed at his friend for a response.

Zuko suddenly found his feet quite interesting as he purposely avoided the airbender's gaze, patiently waiting for a response.

"Zuko?" He asked again.

"I don't know..." The firelord finally responded hesitant to meet his friends eye. He looked up and the Avatar had a solemn look in his eye. Azula's punishment must have been bothering him for longer than he's been letting on.

"Three years ago I would have never thought about releasing Azula, but as time passed I slowly began to forgive her. You'd be amazed how much hate can cloud your judgement.

"But she's a menace to-"

"Let me finish." The airbender interrupted him." Over time, I began to sympathize for her, I saw it. All the hate, troubles, and losses caused by the war had no where to go once it was over, so they all manifested in Azula all because of what we call _justice_. It's not fair, she shouldn't have to suffer while everyone is out celebrating the end of the war." Aang could tell by the look in his eye that those words had reached the Firelord.

Zuko let out an exasperated sigh before meeting Aang's gaze again. "I'll sleep on it." Zuko may not have been an airbender, but he was very good at running and evading.

"There we go." Aang said as he cheerily patted Zuko on the back."That's the Zuko I let into our group all those years ago."

Zuko laughed at Aang's small joke, but also that they had finally changed to a less depressing topic.

"I always wondered what would have happened if I joined you as soon as I got banished." Zuko spoke while looking up at the stars and recalling all their adventures years ago.

"I would have mastered firebending quicker, ended the war about half a year earlier, oh, and you would have saved yourself many ass whoopings." Aang smugly answered.

"I would have saved many ass whoopings huh? That's funny, because I was just about to say you wouldn't have had to experience getting demolished by my sister, twice!"

"W-well back then I w-wasn't as good at bending!" Aang stammered trying to think of a good excuse.

"Besides, she only beat me because you helped her." Aang reminded him.

"You had Katara on your side so things balanced out. Now on the other hand, we have that _small_ fight on the drill where my sister had you unconscious and pinned against the wall." Aang's face turned red from embarrassment, he opened his mouth to reply but couldn't come up with anything.

"I would have beaten her with my extra training at Ember Island!"

Zuko knew this was true but decided to have a little more fun with the flustered airbender. "Maybe with Avatar state." Zuko mumbled under his breath.

"What did you say?!" Aang screamed at Zuko.

"Oh nothing, just a small cough."

Aang took deep breaths as he made an attempt to calm down and not let Zuko get to him.

After a few moments of silence Zuko spoke up. "Well we should probably get some sleep, we're leaving early tomorrow."

"Okay, I'll go get Katara." Aang told Zuko as he ran down the path to the beach.

The Firelord nodded towards his friend one last time before turning around as he made his way to the beach house.

"Katara! Sokka! Let's go inside!" The airbender called to his friends playing in the water. Katara easily bended the water off her skin and out of her hair, she took a moment to get dressed before doing the same for Sokka. He watched Katara approach him, her soft, luscious hair gently bouncing as she began to pick up speed, her hair wasn't the only thing bouncing, but Aang did his best to ignore the other parts. Katara broke into a run with a dazzling smile on her face. She stretched her arms out and the airbender couldn't help but return the smile as he took the last couple steps to close the distance between them.

"I missed you." She whispered softly into his ear sending a shiver down his spine, she always had that effect on him.

"We were only separated for a couple hours." He responded, his eyes were still closed with a content smile on his face.

"I know, time just seems to move by slowly when you're not around." Katara replied as she pulled her chin off his shoulder and gazed into his eyes. They had been a couple for two years but that gaze of hers still made him blush like he did when they were traveling the world.

"Come on," He urged the waterbender along the path. "Let's go inside before you freeze." Katara rolled her eyes as she began walking towards the house alongside him.

"I love you, Aang." Time almost seemed to slow down as the words rolled off her tongue.

"I love you too." Aang replied with a sincere smile.

"You did it again." She said with a smirk.

"Did what?" He asked, though he already knew what she was talking about.

"You're face went blank and you froze again when I told you I loved you."

He laughed lightheartedly with a roll of his eyes.

"I can never do anything without you noticing, can I?"

"Nope, that's why I'm sure you would never cheat on me or do anything behind my back. If you did, I wouldn't enjoy having to go back home to search for the new Avatar." Katara joked with her boyfriend.

"Good to know, not that I would ever do anything like that."

"I know." She said while grabbing on his arm and leaning into him as they walked.

"I'm sleepy." The waterbender told him with a yawn.

"Me too." Aang replied, stifling his own yawn. Katara leaned her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes, only focusing on walking. Aang couldn't help but smile as the wind blew her tangled, long hair behind her shoulders. They walked alongside, just like that, all the way back to the Ember Island house.

They finally approached the front door after a few minutes, climbing the stairs together. The couple paused, hesitant to open the door since they knew this was the point of no return.

"I wish we could just relive this moment over and over." Katara said opening her ocean blue eyes to look up at him.

"I know what you mean," Aang smiled at her. "But ten days is still pretty good."

"Ugh." She groaned.

"What's wrong?"

"It's just that you're stupid meetings are going to continue once you get back to the Firenation, tearing us apart again."

"Don't worry, I'll make sure whatever time I have off is spent with you." The Avatar responded, gently caressing her cheek with a finger.

"Hehehe, stop it that tickles." Katara giggled playfully as she slapped his hand away.

"Sorry." Aang responded with a smile. The couple finally climbed the steps up to the front door. Aang opened it and gestured for her to walk in first, she smiled at him and stepped inside with Aang right behind her.

"Took you two long enough." An irritated voice grumbled from the corner of the room. They glance over to see Sokka, arms crossed and leaning against the wall with a scowl on his face.

"What were you two even doing?" Aang opened his mouth to reply but was cut off when Sokka put his hand up.

"Actually, I don't want to know. Hurry up and go to bed though, we can't miss tomorrows meeting, the Earth King will freak out."

"You're always so uptight Sokka, you need to learn how to relax." Katara said with a roll of her eyes.

"One of us has to be responsible, who knows what would happen if it were up to you _two_." He replied, his scowl returning. Katara just shrugged off his comment and walks upstairs. Once she is out of view, the warrior turned to Aang.

"What were you and Zuko talking about?" He asked with suspicion clearly laced in his voice.

"Ummm, I don't know what you're t-talking about." Aang stammered.

Sokka rolled his eyes at him and crossed his arms again, clearly unwilling to accept that answer.

"You know you're a really bad liar right?" The warrior told him.

Aang was hesitant to tell the truth to Sokka since Zuko still had yet to accept his offer.

"I'll tell all of you tomorrow morning on the ship, I promise."

Sokka relented finally and nodded his head towards Aang before walking upstairs. Aang let out a sigh of relief as the figure of the warrior finally disappeared from view.

"Really dodged an arrow there." He said to himself, plopping down on the couch. After a few minutes, he finally willed himself to go upstairs and try to get a good night's sleep. The team will have to wake up early in the morning. He walked by Suki, Toph, and Mai's rooms before he finally reached his at the end of the hall.

**AN: So yeah, a little Kataang in this chapter, for those of you who don't like it, I did warn you. I'm really getting the urge to just go all out and satisfy my hunger for Kataang, but for the sake of the story I'm trying to suppress it. I don't really like how Zuko and Aang's conversation turned out, I keep editing it but something still bugs me. Oh well. I'm gonna try to get a chapter up every Saturday but I'm not making any promises, I'm a busy student-athlete and it can get in the way sometimes.**


	2. Chapter 2

**AN: Wow, only a day late? :D. Yeah I know, my expectations of myself are embarrassingly low...**

The faint sound of dripping water filled the cell, it was familiar as her heartbeat at this point. Her eyes had sharpened to the near pitch blackness, not that it mattered, she had figured out this cold metal box inside and out long ago. She glanced over at the tray of rotting food the guards had slipped in through the small slit in the iron door. At first, she had refused to eat anything here due to the drug inside that suppressed her bending, but she eventually had to eat or she would die. Death didn't seem like such a bad idea, but even in her state, she had too much pride to go out like that. She crawled over to the small glass of water and picked it up. Looking down into the rippling water, she saw golden eyes staring back at her. But these eyes had none of that cunning, ferocity, and confidence they used to radiate. She gulped the water down quickly, it spilled down her chin and dripped on her sweaty, putrid smelling prison uniform. Letting out a groan, she shook the last drops of water into her mouth. She was alone, her friends had betrayed her, her brother was the one who threw her in here, and her mother left her, just like everyone she ever knew. Every time someone would look at her all they saw was the fallen princess, the disgrace to the Firenation, the face of hatred and all unbalance the war had created. She tried to forget many of the memories, but no matter how hard she tried, she could never forget the events on that _day_.

_The fire sages stood behind her, holding the royal crown over her head. She had been dreaming of this day since her brothers banishment. "By decree of Phoenix King Ozai," The head sage began. "I now crown you Firelord-" The sage paused. "What are you waiting for?" She snapped at him. "Do it!" Before the sage could respond, the familiar roar of a loud bison sounded throughout the courtyard. She quickly turned her head to the skies, her eyes widened at the sight. The bison landed with a thud, she could already feel the rage boiling inside of her once more as her eyes landed on her brother, standing on the head of the bison. She also caught a glimpse of the filthy watertribe peasant right behind him._

"_Sorry, but you're not gonna become Firelord today." He announced, leaping off the bison's head. "I am."_

"_Haha, you're hilarious." She responded sarcastically. Her face twisted into a scowl as the waterbender stepped from behind her brother._

"_And you're going down." The peasant responded._

_The head sage started to resume the ceremony after getting over the initial shock from her brother's unexpected appearance. _

"_Wait." She stopped the sage, bringing up her palm. She looked her wretched brother straight in the eyes, gold staring down gold. "You want to be Firelord? Fine. Let's settle this, just you and me brother, the showdown that was always meant to be." She didn't bother hiding the excitement in her voice and eyes as she spoke. "Agni Kai!"_

"_You're on." He responded instantly, he had a confidence in him that she hadn't seen before._

She wasn't sure how she lost, but she did and that's all that mattered. Her golden eyes hardened as she recalled losing to that pathetic waterbender in the final moments before everything went south. To her surprise, she felt cold, wet drops sliding down her cheeks. She had thought she was done crying long ago, but that loss still ached inside of her, it would probably never disappear. Her train of thought was interrupted when she heard the locks on the iron door clicking. The door slid open and in stepped her cell guard.

"Follow me." He ordered without explaining. Before she could even protest, he grabbed her by the arm and pulled her out of the cell. Three years ago no one would dare touch her, and if someone did they would quickly meet their demise, but she was just a shell of her former self now. The blinding light hurt her eyes as she stepped into the hallway, she had not seen light that wasn't through her small cell window in years. She had to squint, putting massive strain on her forehead just to keep her eyes from burning. Letting the guard lead her to their destination, she slowly began walking in rhythm and stretching her legs. It had been too long since she actually had reason to walk, most of her days were spent sitting and moping whenever she happened to be awake. They rounded a corner and stairs came into view. The guard gave her another tug on the arm signaling her to speed up. She couldn't do anything but comply as they briskly walked up the steps. Her eyes were glued to the ground as they continued their small trip, keeping her head down to avoid the blinding light from the small lanterns on the ceiling. She almost bumped into her escort as they suddenly stopped, she looked up at the guard with a confused expression.

"We're here." The guard explained flatly. "Step inside, the doctor has something important to tell you."

She had almost forgotten this was a mental institution, it resembled a prison and they treated her like a prisoner, only stepping in her cell to give her medication. Unsure of what to expect, she turned the knob on the door slowly, until she heard a small click. The door creaked open as she stepped inside.

"Hello, Princess." A friendly voice greeted. "We have some news for you that you may like."

"Ahhh" Aang moaned in relief as he plopped down on the couch. He had finished packing and had about 30 minutes to kill before the others would finish. He closed his eyes and dozed off for what felt like one and a half seconds before being rudely awoken.

"Boo!" Toph shouted in his ear. Aang's whole body tensed as he instantly sat up and brought his hands up, assuming an airbending stance. He scanned the room searching for an intruder of some sort only to realize he was in much, much greater danger. Toph's laughter filled the whole household as she began wiping tears from her eyes.

"Aang! Hurry up!" He heard Sokka call out. Aang looked through the open door to his left to see the others had already loaded their luggage in the back of the saddle and were waiting for him on Appa.

"It's not funny Toph." Aang's attempt to sound stern quickly failed when his voice cracked on the last word, causing Toph to burst into even more laughter.

"It's not funny Toph." the flustered Avatar repeated, straining to keep his voice low. Aang got up from the couch and rubbed the exhaustion from his eyes. He turned towards the front door and began to make his way towards the rest of the group. Suddenly, he felt something hard catch his ankle causing him to lose his balance. Using airbending, he stopped himself right before he came crashing face first into the hard wooden floor. He sighed in relief as his face levitated inches from the ground. That would not have been a good way to start off the day, especially with a boring trip ahead. Aang put his palms on the ground in an attempt to stand back up. As soon as he raised his torso off the ground, he got slammed back into the floor with a thud. Letting out a groan, he rubbed his forehead and could tell a headache was starting to form from the impact. The weight soon shifted and he heard a small giggle from above him. Aang glanced up to see Toph smirking down at him.

"Did you really have to step on my back?" He groaned.

"Oh that was you? I thought Zuko was just renovating the house. I must say, you make an awfully soft carpet. If you weren't so ugly to look at, we could've called you furniture."

Ignoring her comment, Aang got up off the ground and brushed himself off. He looked behind him to get a glance at what he tripped over. He wasn't very surprised to see a small rock jutting out of the broken floorboards, it had pierced the floor rather violently and would no doubt need to be repaired. He mumbled to himself something about abuse and revenge before earthbending the rock back into the ground.

"Hmmm... I wonder how that got there." Toph said innocently with a shrug of her shoulders before walking towards the others and Appa.

Aang thought about lashing out at his earthbending sifu, but resolved to just meditate once he got settled on Appa.

The flight from Ember Island to the Firenation capital was quick and silent, all the others were taking small naps while he occupied his usual spot on Appa's forehead. Zuko wrote something on a small parchment before rummaging through the luggage for the messenger hawk, once he found it he whispered something inaudible to it and it took off. Aang didn't think anything of it as he was too deep in the thoughts and concerns floating about inside his head. Was it a mistake to make that promise last night? What was he thinking? Can he even control Azula? What will happen if this turns into a colossal failure and Azula escapes from him? Can he afford to fail the world again? He quickly realized that the only way to prepare himself for such a task was to get a glimpse of it, the prison was a small walk from the palace. Azula was on the no-visitor list but the guards would surely make an exception for him.

Aang was too caught up in his own thoughts that he didn't even notice Appa had touched down and the others began stirring from their sleep.

"Aang?" Katara called for him while stretching. He quickly broke his train of thought and glanced over at his girlfriend.

"Yeah?" He asked, watching her blink away the sleep from her eyes.

"Nothing, just making sure you're here." She answered.

Aang saw the others beginning to unload the luggage off of Appa's tail and walked over to help. He airbended a few suitcases gently onto the ground with ease, his mind was elsewhere though. The Azula problem kept tugging at the back of his mind, he had so many questions and nowhere to find answers. He was glad when the irritated earthbender to his left broke his train of thought.

"It's about time." He heard Toph grumble. He looked over to see a few nervous servants sprinting towards them. Everyone watched in amusement as the three scrawny looking men made the final strides towards the group.

"M-My lord!" One of the servants stammered, "I'm sorry we were late, please forgive us, the kitchen staff had trouble with-"

"Save it." Zuko sharply interrupted the servant, putting a hand up. "It's okay." The three servants let out a breath of relief and began to slowly unload the remaining luggage off of Appa. Obviously, the Firenation was still adjusting to it's new more empathetic leader and policies, including the palace staff.

Aang was laying in his bed while he concentrated on hovering a small coin in the air. It had been too long since he had last practiced his airbending and it was showing as he struggled to keep the coin afloat. He had made up several drills to sharpen his airbending skills with this being one of them. It was easy to pick up and move an object like he did when unloading the luggage, but levitating the object was much more difficult. The drill required a constant amount of force, and excellent focus and precision, the smallest distraction could throw him off and hence drop the object. It was even more difficult to perform with an object as tiny as a coin, for it was very easy to overdo it and launch the coin into the air. In fact, it was easier to levitate a person than to levitate a coin. He concentrated very hard on the task at hand and levitated it for about half a minute before dropping it again. Happy with his results, he finally gave himself a break and glanced out the window. It was getting dark and dinner would no doubt be soon.

He didn't tell anyone of his plan for tomorrow, it would only cause suspicion and worry, so he kept it to himself. His plan was to go to bed right after dinner and wake up early tomorrow to visit Azula, hoping that she wouldn't be asleep when he arrived. She was already hard to deal with when she was wide awake. As he expected, the door burst open moments later and Toph peaked in.

"Dinner time Twinkletoes," Toph spoke in a sing song voice. "if you're late again I'll be eating your food." She said, before closing the door and retreating to the dining hall.

Ignoring his earthbending sifu, Aang laid in bed for a few more moments before finally willing himself to get up and eat. He didn't get much sleep the previous night because he had to wake up early to pack and come here from Ember Island, all his worries about Azula didn't help either. He walked over to the sink and splashed some water in his face to wake himself up. Once he finished, he pulled on one of his monk robes and walked towards his door. It didn't surprise him when he noticed one of the hinges was broken, he made a mental note to get back at Toph for that prank in the morning and that broken door.

As he neared the dining hall, he could hear his friends chatting and laughing as they waited for the servants to bring out the meals. Aang always felt bad for the servants because he was convinced that he made them do more than required by cooking his vegetarian meals for him. Katara always told him he needed to stop blaming himself for everything but he couldn't help it, he was the Avatar and the Avatar should always be responsible and dependable. Aang took a deep breath as he stepped into the royal dining hall, it looked spectacular as always. The glistening chandelier lit the room completely, the red and gold velvet seats lined the table flawlessly. The table itself was about 15 meters long to accompany any visiting officials or other people of importance. The group always sat close together at the far end of it so they could talk, joke, and reminisce about their old war adventures.

"Aang!" Katara cheered. She got up from her seat and ran towards him with her arms open. He welcomed her in his arms and laughed as she tackled him to the ground. He closed his eyes as he sighed contently with the love of his life in his arms, she did the same. After a few moments, they opened their eyes and got up.

"You look great, sweetie." He said while brushing himself off.

"Thank you, I obviously put more time into getting dressed up then you did." She joked. Aang blushed as he embarrassingly realized that he had been laying in bed the whole afternoon and didn't even take time to shower, he subtly sniffed his armpits, making sure he didn't have an odor.

"You smell fine!" Katara told him while giggling. "It's only me and the others for spirit's sake!"

"Well looks like you didn't get the memo judging by how you dressed up." He playfully responded.

"Oh, shut it. Come on, the others are starting to get mad, I think." Katara said while dragging him by the arm to their seats.

He sat down and noticed Toph, Zuko, and Mai looked annoyed while Suki smiled understandingly at the two. Sokka on the other hand, looked like he was ready to unsheathe his sword and jump at Aang, it wouldn't have been the first time.

"Sooo..." Aang trailed off, trying to alleviate the tension. "What are we having for dinner?" It had the desired effect and Sokka immediately perked up at the topic.

"I'm glad you asked." He replied with an unsettling grin. Everybody rolled their eyes at what was coming. "You see, I used the old war hero card and I was able to get a package of fresh, arctic camel-" To everyone's relief, the servants entered the room, distracting Sokka.

"Yay!" the warrior shouted in delight. "Food is here!"

"How observant of you, Snoozles. It wasn't totally obvious when they walked in carrying platters." Toph grumbled, blowing the bangs out of her face.

Sokka fell silent but continued to beam at the silver platters being laid out on the table, making the servants carrying the platters feel uncomfortable. Once everything was in place and the servants scattered back to the kitchen, Zuko stood up.

"I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I must tell you all something."

**AN: Cliffhanger! Pretty sure you can all guess what he's going to say anyway though. A lot more effort went into this one whereas with the first chapter, where I was more testing the waters. Hope you enjoyed reading! Forgive me for any typos as I wrote this after practice and I was exhausted. Explosive basketball training tends to do that to you.**


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